YES is a joint initiative between government business, labour and civil society, which aims to reduce youth unemployment rates across the country and the College is proud to be a part of this important initiative.
The YES programme was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in March 2018, and came into operation in November 2018, following the release of the change to the B-BBEE legislation. Tashmia Ismail-Saville, CEO of the YES programme stated: “ Creating sustainable work opportunities for the youth is a national priority and we are grateful for partners like Nedbank and the WildTrust, who are walking this journey with us, and who prepared to offer quality work experiences”.
1 715 youth will be given work opportunities through the WildTrust YES Sustainability Impact Project. “Essentially these agents of change will be mobilised across the Country in our WildTrust projects nodes and through partnering with a number of grassroots organisations” said WildTrust CEO, Dr Andrew Venter.
The College is proud to be part of this programme, and has welcomed fifteen youth to the SAWC family after a round of tests and interviews. The youths will be placed in three different departments: the Rural Initiative for Sustainable Environment (RISE) project unit, where they will be interacting with communities, be involved with community governance issues, and will be developing programmes for school children; our Hospitality department, where they will learn about the services offered to tourists within conservation areas, will be exposed to all aspects of hospitality from housekeeping to reception, and all aspects related to cooking for guests; our Maintenance department, where they will work almost exclusively on our innovative waste water management programme.
These fifteen youth will be with the college until end of April 2020 and will undergo not only valuable work experience and on the job training, but also targeted specific training programmes aimed at preparing and equipping them for future employment.
